Paul's Journal

01/19/2007 01:09 #37771

The weirdest meals
Category: food

Washington Market Philly Cheese Steak - not that great the cheese was more like nacho cheese from lasertron or puttputt.

Panos Sirloin Salad - Nameless Bitch ordered it first and then everyone else at the table ordered one. I have never eaten anywhere, where each person got the exact same thing.

Everyone got one

Don Pablo's Shrimp Enchilada

We ordered Buffalo Style Calamari at Pano's by accident. It is gross

Today at lunch I could not resist eating this chicken wing as a desert with my mashed potato bar meal.

leetee - 01/19/07 10:22
The first and only time we have been to Washington Market, they were only half built... and i didn't see many veg options for me. The sandwich looks gross... Is any of their other food better?

I know peeps like Panos... but i so don't get why. The one and only time i ever ate there, the service was complete shit, the table was dirty and the food was burnt.

ladycroft - 01/19/07 09:47
you mean the 2 pounds of olives with a little cheese and extra crispy cardboard? mmmmm :)

libertad - 01/19/07 08:56
That cheese steak really looks bad. Now I have to post the nasty pizza I got last night. I'm surprised that is from Washington Market.

01/18/2007 10:13 #37758

The Rental Drama Continues
Category: landlord

I can't believe none of them have paid still. It is the isngle most frustrating experience of my life. This Cuban woman loves to maniacally bargain and she will do anything to put herself in a bargaining situation. Originally the rent was $600 and she bargaining down to $550. Woo the hell bargains in America. Maybe I should try it more often. Anyways, I have no interest with meeting with her to discuss it. I want my money now or I want them out. Imagine if when things were really broken I said, well I will meet with you to discuss fixing it next week and then we can bargain.

Anyone know how to evict someone or have any experience with this? This is my first time.

Paul,
you have the arregement with mandee and cathy!---I don't know what are you talking about???
Tenant

Tenant,
Mandu no longer lives there. She only had a contract through January and you have known that for months. We have discussed this multiple times that you are responsible for maintaining roommates to pay to additional rent.

We currently have no contract as you and cathy never gave me back a copy of the signed lease.

If you cannot maintain paying the full rent of $550 between you and
whatever roommates you have then you will have to leave. Like I said
please make plans to leave the property in 30 days (feb 14th) if you
cannot comply with paying the entire rent.

I have no interest in bargaining on this issue. I had already reduced the rent to $600 from $550 for you guys. Either pay the full $550 or leave as
I am not renting a three bedroom apartment for $183 or $367.

Paul

Paul
It would be better to meet each other and discuss about this misunderstanding. This should not be discuss by email. I meet you at the appartment next friday at 10 pm
Tenant

Tenant
Who do you think you are to dictate when I will meet with you and how we will communicate. I have no interest in meeting with you or discussing the issue any further. There is no misunderstanding and no bargaining. You have totally disrespected me at this point by making me wait so long for the rent and making me come check on it so many times this month.

You are seriously overdue on rent and I am not obligated to pick it up. That apartment costs $550 per month. I don't care how you split it up amoungst your roomates. By law you are able to have two other roomates because it is a 3 bedroom apartment. I explained in the lease that it is $550 for 1 person, $275 each for 2 people, or $183 each for three people.

I am not renting you a 3 bedroom apartment right next to school for $183 per month.

I expect the rent in full tomorrow thats $550 and I don't care how you split that up with other tenant or whoever you have as a third roommate. If you cannot comply I would begin to look for another place of residence immediately.

Paul Visco

pyrcedgrrl - 01/19/07 12:18
I used to be a process server. If you need someone to pretend to be a delivery person and had the paperwork over I might be able to get it over there for ya. :D

hodown - 01/18/07 11:15
Holy Crap, I can't believe this. Man if they pulled that anywhere else they'd be out with the swiftness! Do you need some Ho power?

uncutsaniflush - 01/18/07 11:06
oh, yeah. one more thing that i just remembered. as ass-backwards as it sounds, in some place, (i have no idea if Buffalo is one of them), if you try to evict a tenant for non-payment of rent, you can't evict them if they pay any rent after you started the eviction process.

And (e:leetee) is right about documenting about using certified mail - you want to document everything so that you can prove that you gave adequate notice to your tenants.

and they refuse the certified letter, you are still ok legally because you have proof that you tried to serve them notice.

uncutsaniflush - 01/18/07 10:37
my only experience with eviction was in Manhattan's Landlord-Tenant court in the 1980s when I worked for developer/contractor.

But, I think I knew a few things that might help.

If no one has a lease, you should be able to give them 30 days notice to leave without going to court because they are considered "month-to-month" tenants and in most places 30 days notice is the statutory requirement.

If they don't leave after 30 days, you can go to court because they are a "holdover" (or at least that's what they called it in NYC) with no right to live in the apartment.

In Manhattan's LT court, it was much easier to get rid of a tenant as a "holdover" than to actually get an official eviction.

leetee - 01/18/07 10:37
I wish i could help you out Paul... but i have never been a landlord either. (e:Uncutsaniflush) and i thought about it when we first moved to Buffalo and found there were a ton of doubles on the market... but that is so another story. The problem you are having is the reason i didn't want to go into that racket.

From the emails, it sounds like the tennant you have feels like she(?) can bargain with you or that you will give in to what she wants if she waits you out.

Send her a certified letter saying the whole rent needs to be in your hands, by whatever method SHE decides (in other words, you will not go get it), by a specific date or all tennants will have to vacate. I think that would be the legal way to do it...

01/16/2007 19:51 #37727

Print Designer != Web Designer
Category: design

I know someone is going to hate me for this, but it seems like the more graphic designers I work with the less respect I have for the profession. I definately do not think that print designers should be allowed to touch the web. Sounds pretty strong I guess but most of them really suck at web design and cannot understand how the graphics are not simply static blobs places on the page but have to include functional parts of the page. I wrote about this last year during the same ride website drama (e:paul,4123)

Mayeb I am just a web snob but it is amazing how much people can get wrong: from color matching, the layout, to design.

I have written about this like 10 times. Web design is no longer cutting up pictures in photoshop and placing them into static tables. Look at this graphic from part of a website that someone wanted me to construct. I am so sick of people building websites in photoshop. It is so 1875 in internet years.

Look at this disaster. Can even the totally untrained eye see that the blues do not match and that the darker blue bar is one or two pixels off from the lighter blue section. This kind of thing is a result of sloppy photoshopping. It makes me crazy.

kara - 01/17/07 08:39
As usual, (e:paul) is absolutely correct.

jenks - 01/16/07 23:29
agree with z. BR magazine, at least the layout, is terrible.

ejtower - 01/16/07 22:57
As a rather avid student of the capitalists I must point out the economic opportunity this presents to the firm that can produce quality stuff. What it comes down to (e:paul) is that you need the right to fire the people you work with, right?

~E.

zobar - 01/16/07 22:53
Point/Counterpoint: Web Designer != Print Designer

Equally irksome are web designers who fail to understand that paper is a fundamentally different medium than LCD [Buffalo Rising Magazine I'm looking at you]. Freakishly bright colors cannot be reproduced with uncoated newsprint. Color cannot be used for emphasis when every page is a God damned rainbowsplosion. Text columns must be narrow or have greater leading*, or they're unreadable. You cannot use sans-serif type for long text runs. Ten point type is REALLY BIG. Drawing peoples' heads without faces was not even cool before Microsoft started doing it. Running a press in Buffalo is a lot more expensive than running a server in Los Angeles.

Of course, I could have told them this and saved them a lot of frustration, but alas, nobody ever asks me.

- Z

_______________

I bet nobody there could even tell me why it's called 'leading.' They used to insert thin strips of lead between the rows of text. This was back in version 1.0 of Movable Type; they eventually replaced the lead with cheaper pixel technology.

mrmike - 01/16/07 21:02
Trouble is, no graphic designer has ever been trained in the ways of the web. They've been honed for print use, what will leap off the page or shelf. To reconnect their thinking & training into smething that will work on the web is something no "designer" will ever admit to having to have to do, but all would be better if they did. That said "Holy crap, that's crap!"

01/16/2007 22:34 #37723

e:shawnr sent me this youtube link
Category: youtube

jenks - 01/16/07 22:47
oh god, there's more?

paul - 01/16/07 22:46
Is it a response to salad fingers :::link:::

mrmike - 01/16/07 22:46
This is the part of Sprockets where we dance!!

jenks - 01/16/07 22:44
Holy
Fuck.

vycious - 01/16/07 22:42
beware the milky pirate? buffalo? what? what is this?

01/15/2007 23:57 #37710

The Ice Storm
Category: art

Had a nice dinner party with chris and his mother. Bekah also stopped by. It was nice to see her. I haven't seen her in a long time. Having a visitor from the mansion down the street made me think that North street is making a comeback, lol.

Took the s7c out to take some nighttime pics of the icestorm. I am posting the original and my crops of each photo.

The holly leaf original